HERITAGE: Daniel Kaluuya Takes Us Through The Writing Stages He Took In The Cult Classic Skins Series (2008)

HERITAGE: Daniel Kaluuya Takes Us Through The Writing Stages He Took In The Cult Classic Skins Series (2008)


April 27, 2021

Daniel Kaluuya — Hollywood A-lister of Black Panther, Get Out and Queen & Slim fame — is now officially an Oscar winner. He's been turning in phenomenal performances for years now, but for many, his earliest iconic role is that of Posh Kenneth in Skins.

He'd already been acting for a couple of years by the time he landed the part (his earliest credited role on IMDb was in 2006), but what a lot of people don't realise is that Kaluuya is also an accomplished writer and actually wrote two episodes for the series; one from series 2 ("Jal") and another from series 3 ("Thomas").

In this behind-the-scenes clip, we hear from a very fresh-faced Kaluuya about the stories he tries to tell, how he tells them, and why. It's worth noting that both Thomas and Jal were two of the only Black characters in Skins (Jal is mixed race) and although he only hints at it, it was clearly important that both characters be given weighty yet sensitively-written storylines that gave depth and complexity to both.

Given the way he talks about getting characters' voices and idiosyncrasies right, it'd be a huge shame if he didn't pick up the pen again in the future.



Photography: Hyperfrank


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